Ambassador Liu Xiaoming

March 30, 2007

Your Excellency Ambassador Suhinin,

Friends and Comrades,

It gives me great pleasure to hold this dinner party. Today is not a special festival, but it is a day of special significance. We, the Chinese and Russian diplomats in the DPRK, are gathering tonight for three purposes: to celebrate the successful state visit to Russia by Chinese President Hu Jintao; to welcome His Excellency Ambassador Suhinin to assume his new post in the DPRK; and to celebrate the New Year in our first gathering this year. This is really an occasion of triple happiness.

The state visit by President Hu Jintao has brought the strategic coordination and partnership between China and Russia to a new high. The leaders of the two countries have reached important consensus on continuously deepening the substantial cooperation, strengthening the strategic coordination and enhancing the strategic partnership between China and Russia. To keep on consolidating and developing the strategic coordination between China and Russia is not only in the highest state interests of the two countries, but also in favour of maintaining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large.

In the region of Northeast Asia, China and Russia have extensive common interests. The two countries have maintained close coordination and cooperation in the six-party talks on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula. Both worked hard in a joint endeavour to achieve positive results of the talks. The Chinese side is willing, in accordance with the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, to continue to strengthen the cooperation with the Russian side in the six-party talks as well as the regional affairs in our joint efforts to bring about a comprehensive and thorough settlement of the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula, to preserve peace and stability in the region, to promote the regional cooperation and prosperity and to build a harmonious Northeast Asia.

Just like the friendly relations between our two countries, the Chinese and Russian embassies in the DPRK have all along maintained good cooperative relations. The diplomats of the two embassies have forged profound friendship. I will work with Ambassador Suhinin to inherit and carry forward the traditional friendship between our two embassies. I believe in the New Year the friendship and cooperation between our two embassies will continue to move forward.

Thank you.